WARNING: I'm going to talk a lot about plot details from the upcoming movie, and since it seems silly to have to hide my entire post behind spoiler tags, I'm not going to. If you don't want to have the story spoiled, don't read this thread.







Yep, I bought the book on the 2nd when it came out, and finished reading it yesterday. (I'm not sure if I should have put my thoughts in the other EPIII thread- I haven't been following it-, so if this one isn't appropriate, just go ahead and close it...)

I didn't like the writing style much at all. Every few pages the author would switch into the second person and present tense ("This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker right now. Your best friend has just asked you to betray your mentor..."), which got pretty irritating at times. He also really loved using certain phrases/words a bit too often ("quantum" and "ghostly smile of patience" come to mind at the moment), but I suppose he's not the only one who's done that.

Stylistic complaints aside, though, I loved it. The saber fights have a chance to be truly epic, and we certainly get plenty of them: Obi&Ani vs. Dooku, Mace vs Palp, Obi vs. Grievous, Yoda vs. Palp, Obi vs. Anakin... and I probably left one or two out. My one regret is that there are very few space battles (the only one is fairly short and right at the beginning). Still, actionwise it should be great, and I don't think it'll be so overdone in the CGI department as EPII.

The plot itself is much stronger than the previous two, and almost all of my fears for transition between EPII and EPIV were allayed. Even if the acting and scripting on the part of Anikan/Padme is as painful as the last one, it should be able to recover. Bail Organa has a noticeable role, and Mon Mothma makes an appearance, as does Tarkin at the very end. Jar Jar appears in only one scene and does nothing aggravating. The whole Kashyyyk invasion, which I thought was going to be a big deal, based on Republic Commando and Battlefront, actually played only a minuscule role. Finally, the whole question of Jedi disappearing at death is explained, but not explicitly.

I'm left with two minor points of confusion, though:

1) During the OT, did Obi-Wan know about Leia's parentage the whole time, or not until ESB when Yoda tells him?
2) Did C-3PO and R2-D2 have any direct contact with Leia before the incident on the Tantive IV? I had always been under the impression that they were only in service of the captain, and Threepio was in fact ignorant of Leia's identity.

I could post a plot summary, if people are interested.

(As I said before, I haven't read the other EPIII thread at all, so I hope that I haven't just repeated what everyone else already knows...)

1) Yes, Obi-Wan and Yoda are both present when Bail asks to raise Leia.

2) Threepio has his memory wiped, that is why he's ignorant of most things relating to Leia. His knowledge about her probably would have been better had his memory not been wiped, then he would have a reason to know more about Leia than just "a person of some importance."

As to 1) I know that; I've read the book. What I was referring to is the exchange in ESB while Luke leaves to Cloud City:

Ben: "That boy is our only hope."
Yoda: "No. There is another."

Now, this would imply to me that, at the time, Obi-Wan didn't know about Leia. But, obviously, he does, so how are we supposed to interpret that remark?

About 3po knowing Leia: At the end of RotS, 3po and R2 are given to Bail, who says he'll have them serve Leia. If this were the case, they should've known of her as the Princess, even after the memory wipe. I suppose later on, Bail just changes his mind and hands the droids over to someone else, but then why bother mentioning this in the first place?

oh...
oh...
oh...


Come on... post plotline... spolers... spoilerrrssssss!!


PLEEEEAAASSSEEE!!!!!


/me heads to library where I find that the book has around 150000 holds on it

You know, if you read the episode 3 spoiler thread thingie and watch the trailer you can piece most of the movie together if you have a cranial capacity of above a 10 year old, that or go buy the book rather than waiting at the library

I think Obi-Wan had only intended Luke to be the hope for the galaxy, I don't think he ever even gave Leia a second thought as she would be raised a politican. Obi-Wan plans to be an "eccentric old uncle" to Luke on Tatooine, he had no intentions for Leia.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought at the end of the book Bail put 3PO and R2 in the service of Captain Antilles.

I suppose you could be right about Leia.

He gave 3po and R2 to Antilles and said something along the lines of, "Polish these droids up; they'll belong to my new daughter."

There should be a line in the book that goes along the lines of
Threepio: "I can't wait to tell Leia about her parents"
Obi?: "Oh, and have that droid's memory erased"
Threepio: "Oh dear".

Yeah, there is, but that isn't my question.

Bail says that 3PO will be Leia's property. Now, even with 3PO's memory being erased (so he won't know her parentage), he'll still know who Leia is, because she owns him.

But, for some reason, in A New Hope he only knows that she's "a person of some importance".

They become the property of Captain Antillies, according to ANH. I think someone here is confused, and I would assume Antillies is who C3PO and R2D2 are given to at the end of ANH (or maybe they're given to Bail and he sells them or lets Antillies borrow them for the Death Star plans mission).

From Page 414:

"Ahead, the Senator [Bail Organa] was met by a man whose uniform, C-3PO's confirmation-recognition algorithm informed him, indicated he was a captain in the Royal Alderaan Civil Fleet.
'I'm placing these droids in your care,' the Senator said. 'Have them cleaned, polished, and refitted with the best of everything; they will belong to my new daughter.'"

So he gives them to Antilles, but my impression was that it was just temporary- it seems clear that he means them to be Leia's droids.

Well, in the 20 year gap between the movies perhaps the droids were given to captain antilles for use aboard Leia's starship? A lot can happen in 20 years.

Plus it was often implied that droids had their memories wiped regularly. Some EU dictionaries, etc. took it further to say that it was to keep them from bugging out due to old commands/memories and to prevent them from developing a personality.